Our Blog

July 2, 2020

Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird (1949 – 2020)

The CBF mourns the sudden passing of Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird.  Throughout her career, Judge Kinnaird worked to make our justice system more fair, accessible, and efficient for all.  She believed deeply in serving others and dedicated countless hours to improving the legal profession and access to the courts, exemplified by her exemplary leadership service […]

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June 16, 2020

Making Law Better By Looking Outside of Law—The Wrap

When I kicked off my 2020 Resolution for the Legal Profession series back in December, to say the world looked different from today would be the understatement of the century. But for everything else that can be said about how much things have changed in just a matter of months, the central point of the resolution—that there is much our legal profession can learn by looking at other professions and industries—has only become more apparent.

The way we do business in law already was not working well for the average person or for the lawyers trying to serve the consumer legal market, and other professions and industries were far ahead of us in modernizing their business practices. As we all adapt to the new normal where more people than ever need legal help and where remote, multichannel access will forevermore be a fundamental part of our lives, it is even more urgent for our legal profession to look beyond ourselves for solutions.

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June 16, 2020

CBA/CBF Task Force Preparing to Release Draft Report for Public Comment

The CBA/CBF Task Force on the Sustainable Practice of Law & Innovation is putting the final touches on a comprehensive report and recommendations for modernizing our regulatory framework for the business of law.  The product of nine months of hard work by dozens of dedicated volunteers working on five committees, the next step is to share […]

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June 2, 2020

A Time for Our Legal Community to Reflect and Act

The CBF joins The Chicago Bar Association in standing with all who seek justice for George Floyd and echoes the words of CBA President Jesse Ruiz.

The events of the past week have underscored how far our country remains from achieving the fundamental American ideal that we all stand equal before the law. Communities of color continue to experience the legal system in different ways than everyone else, and too often with deadly consequences, as the whole world has seen with the death of George Floyd and too many others.

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May 26, 2020

Illinois Supreme Court Enters Order Supporting CARES Act Housing Protections

The CBF and its partners in the legal aid community helped advocate for a Supreme Court Order based on the protections for tenants outlined in the federal CARES Act. Under the Act, landlords are required to wait until after July 25 to issue any eviction notices to renters in housing units that are part of […]

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May 26, 2020

Illinois Supreme Court Adopts New Rule and Policy Encouraging Remote Court Appearances

Through its ongoing partnership with the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice, the CBF helped draft the new Illinois Supreme Court Policy on Remote Court Appearances in Civil Proceedings and Supreme Court Rule 45.

The CBF has long advocated for increased remote access to the court system seeing the benefits that simple technologies can […]

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May 21, 2020

Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should, and Just Because We Should Can Never Again Mean We Can’t

That deliberately challenging title could apply to most things in our lives as we (hopefully) start returning to a semblance of normal in the coming weeks. My focus here is specifically on our courts and legal profession as the conversations about how to reopen the system get started. As much as the pandemic exposed the flaws and limitations of the system when it hit, there have been some impressive adaptations since then, and we have a unique moment in time to shape a much better future for the courts, our profession, and access to justice.

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May 18, 2020

Virtual Passport to Chicago Turns Up the Heat

On Friday, May 15, the CBF hosted a virtual Passport to Chicago event in partnership with The Chopping Block. Chef Sara led our guests through a cooking demonstration of Roasted Vegetable and Black Bean Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce and Refried Beans, teaching a variety of useful knife and other culinary skills in the process. If […]

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May 17, 2020

Legal Aid Needs Law Firm Support Now More Than Ever

This op-ed appeared in Law360 on May 17, 2020.

By Jeffrey Stone | McDermott Will & Emery LLP

As the coronavirus pandemic has turned our entire world upside down over these past few weeks, it has been heartwarming to see the way so many have stepped up to help the people who are most impacted. Bringing groceries to an elderly neighbor, supporting food pantries that are suddenly seeing a surge in demand, and doing a little extra to support our favorite local restaurants and their employees are just a few of many examples.

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May 15, 2020

JEP Welcomes New Cohort of Socially-Conscious Attorneys

On May 4, the CBF Justice Entrepreneurs Project welcomed its fifteenth cohort into the program. These six attorneys—Veronica Canton, Sergio Juwa, Seth McCormick, Ashley Rodriguez, Kimber Russell and Salam Zaidan—are eager to take on the immense challenges and need created by COVID-19 by starting innovative and socially conscious practices helping low- and middle-income people and […]

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